MOSCOW (AP) — Russia wants to sit down with Pentagon officials for “open and specific” talks on alleged violations of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty, the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday.
The U.S. claims Russia is violating the INF treaty, and on Dec. 4 issued an ultimatum that Moscow come into compliance with the accord in 60 days, or else Washington will withdraw. Russia denies it’s in breach of the treaty.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu sent his counterpart, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis, a proposal for launching a dialogue three days ago, according to a statement Saturday.
But Russia says it hasn’t received any official reply from the Pentagon, which spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said proves that the U.S. is unwilling to maintain professional dialogue with Moscow on security issues.
On Friday, the Russian mission to the U.N. submitted a draft resolution calling for the international community to support the INF treaty against Washington’s threat of withdrawal, warning that a collapse of the treaty could undermine nuclear arms control across the board.
Washington began sounding off on a potential Russian violation of the INF treaty under President Barack Obama.
Under President Donald Trump, those allegations have been specified and coupled with threats of unilateral withdrawal from the landmark 1987 arms agreement, which banned an entire class of ground-launched missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,000 kilometers (310-3,100 miles).
The U.S. claims that a new Russian missile, designated by NATO as the SSC-8, operates in ranges forbidden by the INF treaty. Russia has strongly and routinely denied the claim, at times throwing accusations of non-compliance back at Washington.
These claims have, at times, focused on U.S. deployment of anti-missile systems in Romania and Poland. Moscow takes specific issue with the U.S. Mk-41 vertical launching system used by these missile defense installations.
The Mk-41, derived from the U.S. Navy’s Aegis missile system, can launch a variety of American missiles — including the sea-launched Tomahawk cruise missile, a weapon that would be banned by INF were it deployed on a ground-based launcher.
INF not only bans ground-based intermediate-range missiles, but their launchers too.
And Moscow has seized on this point to claim the U.S. is responsible for destabilizing the INF treaty.
This is Bolton being Bolton. He want’s a return to the cold war. He, and probably he alone, can imagine some country winning a nuclear war.
What folks like Bolton don’t realize is we now have one world civilization. Old time empires are obsolete and will never return.
Trump calls himself a nationalist. Many in the media are confused. They think he is talking about white nationalism. I don’t think he is. I think he is talking about old time national identity nationalism that advances the notion that the American nation or the Russian nation can actually win when it weakens Russia or America. What Bolton doesn’t realize is America didn’t defeat the Russian empire, the world civilization lead by America did. When a series of US presidents beginning with Nixon convinced the Chinese leadership to join the world economy, the Russian empire was doomed. The world economy or world civilization is much bigger than America alone. Like Russia, America bucks the world civilization at its peril.
Brilliant timing on the russians’ part. Destablize the country domestically, and use that loss of focus to launch a perfectly “legitiimate” attack on the international front.
Who cares what Moscow thinks? Bunch o’ losers.
America should focus on big players, big economic powers, like China, Japan, India, Germany, the UK, France, Italy… and California.
If Russia wants to play nuclear brinksmanship, then maybe we should just let our Greek buddies slap Russia around a bit.
Trump has already denuclearized the Korean Peninsula. This is simply his opening gambit to do the same with Russia. “We’ve got the plan largely completed and we’ll be filing over the next two or three weeks — maybe sooner.”
I read this short article quite differently. Bolton et al do not necessarily want war with Russia–he, like Trump, has been busily misdirecting away from Saudi and Russia, and targeting Iran, as he’s done for over a generation.
This is the Russians bitching because “President Mattis” (don’t @ me–I’m not saying it’s a “good thing,” only that it reflects the current reality that almost no one else in the Trump Crime Cabinet is competent or responsible) has consistently and understatedly undercut the misdirection rhetoric.
You have to parse his statements and read them the way that allied nations’ intelligence and military forces do. Mattis has consistently signaled to the Russians that Trump’s Presidenting-by-Twitter cosplay does not reflect US intelligence and armed forces strategic stances.
This is Russia bitching about that realization. It’s provokatsiya.